Gateway Policies allow an Administrator to apply granular control to the flow of email messages as they are processed by Mimecast. They are:

A set of rules that affect the flow of email traffic.

Applied to either inbound or outbound messages.

There are a number of policy types, each of which has a specific purpose as outlined below. Each policy has a set of options. Some policies allow more specific settings to be configured by use of a separately configured definition. Where this is the case, the table below states this.

The policies available to you depends on the Mimecast product you've purchased.

Allows internal users to send confidential messages to external recipients. Instead of sending the email to the recipient's mail server, the recipient can view and respond using Mimecast Personal Portal (MPP), or Mimecast Services for Outlook (MSO).

Prevents email delivery by specifying what content to look for, and what action should be taken if a match is found. Matches emails are sent to the Held queue. Additionally, notifications can be sent for specific senders / recipients or groups of users.

Controls if and when to assign a disclaimer to an email, by applying a Stationery Layout. This policy is only available if you have not purchased the Stationery module. If you have the Stationery module, this functionality is provided by the Stationery policy type.

Bypasses Mimecast's data optimization activities whereby the message content is exploded or attachments saved under the single instance storage mechanism. Instead, emails are delivered as the original raw file.

Allows administrators to specify a threshold of delivery attempts. After the threshold is reached, an outbound message should be hard bounced if the MX resolution performed by the Mimecast Message Transfer Agent (MTA) results in a permanent failure.

Ensures inbound emails bypass security checks (reputation and spam checks) but not virus checks. Emails are delivered directly to internal recipients, without the risk of the message being rejected or placed in the Held queue.